Help with working out a superchunk tab
 

The song is "Detroit has a Skyline" and the very few tabs online miss out one of the main parts of the song. The verses go E, C# and A, but over the A chord Mac plays four chords, on the 9th fret, 7th, 6th and then back to the 7th again. There are some videos online of him playing it acoustic, which give you a pretty good view of his fingers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRmwXhW7SfY

So far, I think I have the 9th and 7th fret chords figured out. It should be something like this:

e x
a x
d 11
g 10
b 9
e 0

e x
a x
d 7
g 9
b 9
e 0

So if anyone who has a better ear than me can verify that, and if anyone can help with the chord based on the sixth fret, it would be very much appreciated.

I'm also fairly certain that second chord I've put up there is wrong by the way, but it's the closest I've got. The annoying thing is how it can't possibly be this complicated to figure out but it is anyway.

About what time in the video should I be looking for?

The four chords, 1/4 bar each, first appear at 00:52-00:55, but you get a good close up at 01:28-01:32.

It looks and sounds too me like he is keeping his fingers in the same position on the same string except for the 3rd cord on the 6th fret. Try this.

I see it as

e X
a X
d 9
g 11
b 12
e 10

e X
a X
d 7
g 9
b 10
e 8

e X
a X
d 6
g O
b 9
e 8

e X
a X
d 7
g 9
b 10
e 8

I think that's exactly right, except the little e stays open in all three chords. It sounds too high otherwise. Also, it's played open in the intro and sounds similar.

Thanks, that's excellent.

By the way, I can't believe how close I was to figuring that out myself. I was one note off that second chord, and then to think it's the exact same shape on the 9th fret. Really annoying.

Hmmm, I don't know. Those chords are uselessly not played with the high e open, but I also don't know that song. When people play chords on those fret while not using the Low E and A strings, they usually play it in 1 of 3 formats. F,B, D min. Sometimes D maj but that one is really hard. For instance a G Maj with the D format would be

D 5 - 1st finger
G 7 - 2nd finger
B 8 - 4th finger
E 7 - 3rd finger

the intro, from about 00:42-00:49 alternates between whatever is playing on the B string (I guess 10 or 9, I've put the guitar away now), and what sounds like to me as the open high E when I play it back.

It might be worth pointing out as well that the other guitar on the studio version is playing a standard A chord over those four high chords, so the E note is there.